In October of 2012, Wellmont Health System launched Project Odyssey - a multi-year, multi-million-dollar investment with electronic medical records leader Epic Systems. This project would result in a customized personal technology interface for Wellmont physicians, providers and patients. Re-architecting the health system’s data center was phase one.

1. WELLMONT IMPROVES DATA CENTER EFFICIENCY
In October of 2012,
Wellmont Health
System launched
Project Odyssey - a
multi-year, multi-
million dollar
investment with
electronic medical
records leader Epic
Systems. This project
would result in a
customized personal
technology interface
for Wellmont
physicians, providers
and patients. Re-architecting thehealth system’s data center was phase one.
“As with any largeenterprise application, therearerequirements for both
storageand compute, and a highly efficient data center is necessary to host the
underlying infrastructure. TheBristol Regional MedicalCenter (BRMC)data
center, one of threein theWellmont system, was originally constructed in the
early 90's when mechanical and electricalredundancy, power delivery, cooling
requirements, and availabilitywere not as strategicas they aretoday. After all,
in the 90's healthcare was still leveraging paper records for patient charting and
film for imaging.” said DarrenRamsey, Wellmont’s Directorof Technology.
BRMC’s20 year old Data Center capability level wasassessed and immediately it
becameapparent therewereimprovements and enhancements necessary to
truly provide strategicvaluefor the Epic system. Floor plan optimizationwas
necessary to house the additional compute and storage, kilowatts per rack
needed to be increased and additional power consumption necessitates
increased cooling capacity.
Powerremediation
The addition of a largeEMC data storagearray, a pair of redundant IBMservers
for the Epic Cache’ database, and a complete hardware/software backup and
recovery system equipped with integratedvariable-lengthdeduplication
technology to securely backup the system data, required additional power
delivery. A new Liebert 90% efficient 160KVA uninterruptable power supply
(UPS) was installed to replacethe aging 80% efficient 100KVA unit, and the 2nd
redundant UPS was upgraded to 120KVA, facilitating the delivery of increased
power capabilities.
Previously all power connections were housed under the floor and presented
challenges with proper cooling, since the power conduits impeded airflow. The
power connections wererevamped to an overhead Starline TrackBusway
system that allows staff to add a new outlet in a matter of minutes, rather than
days toweeks for electricians to build out additional electrical conduit paths
under the floor. Additionally, APC’s intelligent 3 Phase power distribution units
(PDUs) were installed in therearof the compute racks that provide load
“As withany large
enterprise application,
there are requirements
for bothstorage and
compute, and a highly
efficient data center
is necessary to host
the underlying
infrastructure.”
Darren Ramsey,Director of
Technology–Wellmont Health
System
CompanyProfile
WellmontHealth Systemisa leading
healthcareproviderin theTri-Cities
region of NortheastTennesseeand
SouthwestVirginia.Formed in 1996
with themerger of Holston Valley
Medical Center in Kingsport,Tenn.,
and Bristol Regional MedicalCenter
in Bristol,Tenn.,Wellmontisa not-
for-profit,integrated health system
guided by themission to deliver
superiorhealth carewith
compassionanda visionto deliver
the besthealth careanywhere.
An array of healthcarefacilities
complementstheservicesoffered by
Wellmont’sfiveacutecarehospitals
and critical accesshospital.

2. balancing across the 3 power phases, and collect ingress and egress temperaturesthroughout the data center. These
power and temperaturemetricsare fed back to a centralizedmanagement toolthat helps pinpoint electrical and
temperature “hot spots” across the data center and assists thestaff to proactively remediatefor continued optimization
and redundancy.
Cooling challenges
Increasedserver load inevitably generatesadditional heat and
thus createstheneed for optimized cooling. The BRMCData
Center was originally arrangedin a hot-isle cold-isle
configuration. While typically sufficient for legacydata centers
with low per rack power requirements, this approach is sub-
optimal in such the hot and cold air mixes and createsthe need
for additional Liebert computer room air conditioners (CRAC) to
keep the equipment operating at the recommended
temperatures. Theairflow has been re-architectedtocounteract
this inefficiency with CPI server enclosures (racks) that provide
passive cooling via “Chimneys”. Thus the cool airenters the front
of therack and exits upward into the drop celling via the
chimney. The CRAC then extractsthe hot airfrom above the
ceiling, chills the air and recirculatesit back into the data center, resulting in 100% containment of the hot air. The hot
and cold airis not allowed to mix and createinefficiencies in the data center.
The end result
The BRMCData Center is now updated with all delivery
systems concurrently maintainableand is 99.999%uptime
ready. Redundancy begins with multiple generatorsfeeding
dual transfer switches. Eachtransfer switch feeds a dedicated
UPS and each UPS feeds a dedicatedbusway for power
delivery. All compute and storagesystems areequipped with at
least 2 power supplies with only half needed to continue
operations. This level of power delivery redundancy allows the
failure of any power component, while the devices continue to
function unaffected. This is critical for planned and unplanned
events.
Cooling was also enhanced and optimized withthe passively
cooled chimney racks. This optimization will allow the data
center to function on 1.5CRACs today with a dedicated CRAC
on standby for high availability, whereas before the re-architecturethedata center required 3 CRACs running
concurrently to maintain proper temperaturelevels. Thereis also a significant cost saving by operating on 1-2 CRACS
instead of 3.
The world of technology has seen plenty of changein recent years. To keep up with it, organizationswith data centers
that are10 yearsof ageor older should seriously consider modernizing those facilities. Upgrading a vintagedata center’s
mechanicaland electricalinfrastructurecan boost reliability, efficiency, flexibility and scalability, while simultaneously
reducing operational spending. Wellmont has retrofittedits BRMCdata center to better serve the Odyssey project and
provide the Epic softwareplatform an environment that enables streamlined functionality, high availability and resource
optimization, allowing Wellmont physicians and providers to effectively serve theNortheast Tennessee and Southwest
Virginia patient communities.
This document prepared in collaboration with Wellmont Health System and its participating suppliers and vendors – 2013.
Liebert – Emerson Network Power, Emerson Electric Co., Columbus, OH
Starline Track Busway – Universal Electric Company, Canonsburg, PA
APC by Schneider Electric, W. Kingston, RI
CPI – Chatsworth Products, Inc., Westlake Village, CA